OGH - 6Ob77/20x
| OGH - 6Ob77/20x | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court: | OGH (Austria) |
| Jurisdiction: | Austria |
| Relevant Law: | Article 25 GDPR Article 77 GDPR Article 78 GDPR Article 79 GDPR Article 80 GDPR Article 84 GDPR Article 267 TFEU § 28 Austrian Consumer Protection Act (Konsumentenschutzgesetz - KSchG) § 29 Austrian Consumer Protection Act (Konsumentenschutzgesetz - KSchG) |
| Decided: | 25.11.2020 |
| Published: | 13.01.2021 |
| Parties: | Verein für Konsumenteninformation (VKI) |
| National Case Number/Name: | 6Ob77/20x |
| European Case Law Identifier: | ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2020:RS0133358 |
| Appeal from: | |
| Appeal to: | Not appealed |
| Original Language(s): | German |
| Original Source: | Rechtinformationssystem des Bundes (RIS) (in German) |
| Initial Contributor: | Marco Blocher |
The Austrian Supreme Court requested a preliminary ruling from the CJEU on whether Article 80 GDPR hinders organisations, that are entitled to bring class actions under national (consumer protection) law from bringing such lawsuits in data protection cases.
English Summary
Background
The Verein für Konsumenten Information (VKI) is an Austrian consumer rights organisation and entiteld to bring collective redress lawsuits and class actions in the interest of consumers pursuant to §§ 28 and 29 of the Austrian Consumer Protection Act (Konsumentenschutzgesetz - KSchG).
The VKI brought a lawsuit against two car rental companies due to their allegedly unlawful general terms and conditions, which contained clauses that are (accordning to the VKI) violatingArticle 25(2) GDPR. The decisions of the first and second court were appealed, the case is currently (January 2021) still pending at the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof - EuGH), which referred to following question to the CJEU under Article 267 TFEU:
Does the GDPR preclude national regulations which, among other things, grant associations the power to take action for violations of the GDPR by way of an action before the civil courts, irrespective of the violation of specific rights of individual data subjects, inter alia from the point of view of the prohibition of the use of ineffective general terms and conditions?
Holding
The OGH will take its decision in the merits of the case once the CJEU has decided on the request preliminary ruling. This page will be adapted accordingly then and linked to the CJEU decision which will also be published pn GDPRhub.eu.
Comment
See here for the press relase of the plaintiff (in German).
The CJEU might decide that class actions are only possible if the national legislator has made use of the opening clauses in Article 80(1) and (2) GDPR ("closed shop"). In this case, consumer rights associations would be barred from bringing GDPR class actions unless especially provided for by member state law.
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English Machine Translation of the Decision
The decision below is a machine translation of the German original. Please refer to the German original for more details.
